


Hawaiian Pynch

by SHHHH_its_a_secret



Category: Raven Cycle - Maggie Stiefvater
Genre: Character Study, Crack Treated Seriously, Domestic Fluff, Fluff and Angst, I'm Bad At Tagging, M/M, Slice of Life
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-15
Updated: 2020-04-15
Packaged: 2021-03-02 02:47:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,985
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23657830
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SHHHH_its_a_secret/pseuds/SHHHH_its_a_secret
Summary: Adam and Ronan go grocery shopping. Adam is tired, Ronan is a little shit. This was supposed to be fluff and then turned into a look at class struggle. I have no control over my own writing. The title is a terrible pun, you've been warned.
Relationships: Ronan Lynch/Adam Parrish
Comments: 16
Kudos: 135





	Hawaiian Pynch

**Author's Note:**

> *Obligatory first fic in this fandom note*  
> I had no idea where this was going the entire time I was writing it  
> I apologize for poor formatting, I've never posted on this site before  
> Thank you so much for reading!

If someone had asked Adam a year ago what he would be doing during the summer months leading up to college, he would have answered this with ease. Work. All he did was work and study. Study and work. And he was not going to stop until he had something to show for it. He had his degree from Aglionby and his scholarship to Harvard, but plenty of rich jackasses got into Ivy League schools, it wasn’t enough to get in, he needed to excel when he got there. So, he would have stiffly answered our hypothetical questioner in a way that left no room for follow up questions. He was Adam Parrish, army of one. Adam Parrish, who had grown from barren soil and survived. Adam Parrish, the magician.

So, if asked a year ago what he would be doing now, he likely wouldn’t have guessed that he would willingly be grocery shopping at 3 am with Ronan Lynch. To be fair, there were a lot of strange events that had happened over the past year that he never would have guessed. But even after all of these, he still sometimes thought that the relationship he and Ronan had managed to form was the strangest. Not bad, just strange. The way they shouldn’t fit together but did, their jagged edges that gradually smoothed each other down rather than clashing jarringly. He felt secure in what they had between them, something that was still new and a bit terrifying.

But. This did not mean that Ronan did not manage to sometimes ROYALLY piss Adam off. As it was, Ronan and Adam were currently standing in the empty aisle of Henrietta’s only 24-hour supermarket, bickering about Hawaiian punch. Them bickering was nothing new, rather it was almost comforting in its familiarity most of the time. They argued for the sport of it sometimes, or as thinly veiled flirting. They didn’t REALLY infuriate each other the way they once had.

But this time Adam was not in the mood. After receiving his acceptance letter to Harvard along with a full ride, he relented and quit his job at the factory, opting to continue to work at Boyd’s which was still a full time job. But it was ONE full time job and for Adam this was almost unprecedented. For once he wasn’t trying to scrabble and claw his way through school while also struggling to eat. And while he still needed income for rent, food, and utilities that left very little of his paycheck behind, he no longer had to worry about scraping together the cost of admission to a prestigious private school. 

But any job has hard days and Boyd’s was certainly no exception. He had worked a twelve hour shift that day and spent a large portion of it swearing over a carburetor that simply refused to respond to any attempts from him to fix it. This meant that he had to stay late after closing to catch up on his other cars, and even after that he was still behind. Ronan had learned to keep his mouth shut about it, but Adam knew that he still didn’t like it when Adam worked late, and there was no hiding it from him today as Ronan was picking him up. He had climbed into the BMW sore and exhausted and more than a little annoyed that Ronan had insisted they go grocery shopping for the Barns RIGHT now. 

They wandered around the store with Ronan throwing items haphazardly into the cart. Adam had added a few items as well, but not for him. Instead it had been Adam pointing out that along with the pile of frozen junk food the cart now contained, Ronan really should eat a vegetable or two once in a while just to shake things up. He also grabbed a box of Lucky Charms for Opal. She didn’t really need to eat, and when she did it was more often bark than food, but even though she was a magical dream goat child, she still loved sugary cereal. She also loved the prizes that sometimes came in the box. They were crunchy. 

Adam was tired from his day but he had relaxed somewhat with Ronan there, he loved his boyfriend and spending time with him, of course. But right now he was having a hard time remembering that. 

The argument had started innocuously enough, with Ronan pushing the cart into the juice and soda aisle insisting that he needed Hawaiian Punch. They had reached the desired shelf and Adam noticed a cannister of store brand fruit punch mix that was on sale, three for a dollar. He grabbed it and tossed it into the cart and continued to walk, but he only made it a few steps before he heard Ronan say  
“Are you trying to fucking poison me Parrish?”

Adam turned back to look at Ronan who was wrinkling his nose at the juice mix with the level of disgust as if it had killed his family.  
(Ok, Adam thought, maybe not the best metaphor.)

“What?” Adam asked blankly as Ronan grabbed the mix and shoved it back on the shelf with contempt.  
“I said Hawaiian Punch, Parrish.” Ronan explained and grabbed a massive jar that he would almost certainly never finish and dropped it in the cart.  
Adam glanced at the shelf where Ronan had gotten and in an exasperated tone  
“Ronan that’s ten bucks.”

He felt stupid as soon as he had said it, what was ten measly dollars to Ronan? He never had to pinch and count pennies the way Adam did. The memory of the boy with the shaved head breezing through the checkout line when Adam couldn’t afford a can of soup echoed in his head.  
Quickly, to cover his embarrassment Adam said “The other stuff is exactly the same. You’d be stupid to buy that one.”  
He reached for the jar and Ronan blocked his hand before he could touch it, a tiger protecting his kill.

“It’s not the same Parrish, that’s fruit punch. This is Hawaiian Punch. Shit man, I know you can read, you got into fucking Harvard.”  
Ronan liked to frequently remind Adam that had been accepted into Harvard. He always disguised it as an insult, but Adam had been able to see through those for a while now.  
But there was no flicker of the rueful pride and affection he usually felt when Ronan did this. He was just too damned tired.  
“It’s exactly the same” said Adam with a forced calm voice, in the tone he sometimes used when he had to tell Opal that she was not allowed to chew on any support beams at the barns. Ronan jutted his chin at Adam in a look that clearly said this was a hill he was ready to die on. 

“Well I like this kind better” he said, starting to push the cart. Adam stopped the wheel with his foot, his irritation growing.  
“Do you just enjoy pissing me off by deliberately wasting money?” he snapped, much sharper than he had intended. He knew distantly that he was overreacting, but he could do nothing to stop it.  
It was about the principle of the thing. So many of Adam’s arguments were. 

He saw Ronan’s eyebrows raise, and his mouth started to open to respond, but suddenly Adam didn’t want to hear it. He threw up his hands. “I’ll just wait outside.”  
He started walking away in agitation. Ronan’s mouth was still slightly open as Adam turned and he didn’t call after him.  
Adam was glad he didn’t. Adam wished he had. 

He strode out the automatic doors, ignoring the cashier who had been eyeing them suspiciously since they walked in.  
He threw himself down on the curb and exhaled heavily. He felt the anger drain out of him to be replaced by shame, just as he knew it would. It had nothing to do with Ronan, not really. It was just the flippancy with which he could spend ten times as much money just for a brand name. It was something that bothered him less than it once had, but sometimes on days like this it still chafed. He groaned and dropped his head onto his knees and waited for Ronan to come out.

He didn’t have to wait long, within five minutes he walked out and immediately spotted Adam. He had a complicated look on his face, but the emotion Adam read the strongest on it was caution. An argument like this could so easily spiral into days of not speaking when they first became friends. Adam weighed his options. He could stick to his guns, Ronan was being a dick. He could have Ronan drop him off at Saint Agnes and he could use the time to get some sleep. Or he could…

Adam stood up decisively and looked at Ronan. Ronan looked back. He was carrying a ridiculous number of bags, it was a point of pride for Ronan that he would never take two trips to carry groceries. The bags were surely cutting off his circulation, but if anyone understood sometimes stupid points of pride, it was Adam.  
Adam grabbed a grocery cart from the row and pushed it at Ronan. 

“I’m not going to drive all the way to the barns because you can’t feel your hands anymore.” He said mock casually. But he met Ronan’s eyes and saw his gaze soften. Adam was still going to the barns, and while he still felt righteously indignant enough to not actually apologize, Ronan could read it in his eyes.  
Ronan rolled his eyes dramatically and dumped the bags in the cart. “You have such little faith in me, Parrish.” He moved to grip the handle but Adam didn’t let go. “Alright hop in.” he said.

Ronan stared at him for a split second before grinning widely and clambering into the cart, managing not to crush ALL of the groceries at least. Adam smiled at the back of Ronan’s head with a faint sense of relief and started to push.  
A few minutes and scrapes later the two boys finally dumped the bags in the backseat and climbed into the BMW. Several things went unsaid between them. But right now that was ok. Everything was ok. 

Ronan paused and stuck his arm into the back of the car and pulled out a bag and roughly (but not too roughly) shoved it into Adam’s chest.  
“I wasn’t trying to be a dick” Ronan said. And Adam knew he didn’t lie.  
He opened the bag and peered inside, paused for a beat, and burst out laughing.  
In the shopping bag was the container of Hawaiian Punch, and three of the generic fruit punch that had been on sale.  
“What?” asked Ronan defensively. 

But Adam couldn’t stop laughing. After a minute his giggles tapered off and he stared at Ronan.  
“Your solution..” he started “to me getting pissed at you for spending too much money, was to compromise by spending more money?”  
Ronan blinked and opened his mouth and then shut it, and the pale skin of his ears turned a slight shade of pink.  
“Yes?” he answered finally. Adam shoved the down on to the floor and leaned across the gearshift to kiss Ronan chastely but firmly on the mouth. He drew back and buckled his seat belt as Ronan turned started the car and pulled out of the parking lot, pointing the BMW to the barns. 

A few moments passed and Adam said thoughtfully “It makes sense that you have to have the brand name, you’re just as destructive as that damn pitcher from the commercials.” Ronan turned to look at him, a look of teasing reproach on his face.  
“That’s Kool-Aid, you cretin.”  
Adam snorted and laid back against the headrest.  
He didn’t feel so tired anymore.

**Author's Note:**

> Really and truly thank you for reading, and if you left a comment it would mean the WORLD to me.


End file.
